Letters,Words and a Song

Today I thought I would share a rare glimpse into the daddy-day-care world here at Chico Daily. Despite the constant scribbling in my back-pocket-book and the late nights starting new paragraphs, finding real time to write something is difficult when I’m completely immersed with my son. This is not a complaint.

BEATS EDITION: Keep Yourself Alive - Best of 2009

Like many of you music junkies, I spent a lot of time obsessing with music when I was young. If we ever sit down to count up the hours it would blow our minds. From listening to radio, mixing tapes, talking to friends, going to shows, writing reviews, dj’ing, time in records stores, surfing, downloading, sharing, tweeting – blow our minds! Never mind if you are in a band to boot. For some of us it tapers off once we get older and settle down as you can tell from one’s music collection where the Bodyguard soundtrack is the most recent disc around. Today I feel like I’m taking more music in than ever before but it is not taking up as much of my time. I think artist/producer Chin Injeti said it best, “Now I can record a song in one day and then with a press of a button I can make it go to a thousand different places.”

Unconditional Soul in Haydain Neale

Today music is all over my brain. The last two nights I woke up in the morning with Jacksoul’s ‘Unconditional’ song stuck in my head. Haydain Neale, lead singer for the group, sadly passed away Sunday night at the young age of 39.

I’ve been replaying the last time he and I spoke over and over in my head. It was early on in my days working in the music industry in Toronto. I was working at PolyGram Music Publishing at the time searching the country for great songwriters just like Haydain. First time I saw the band at the Bamboo on Queen St. I was blown away with the musicianship on that stage and my arm was filled with goose bumps on hearing Haydain’s voice sing Unconditional.



We met again weeks later where we discussed music publishing, the Canadian music scene and Haydain being a father.

Julie and Julia, and Chico

It has been over a month since I last wrote, which does not bode well for a blog with the word DAILY in it. In truth, I have been struggling with direction lately. Well, my immediate direction and concentration hasn’t been a problem, taking on the stay at home father role, but leaping to the next direction of generating income again has been the challenge. Yet, it feels like I’m going to give birth to something great over the next little while.

Change my attitude, to gratitude

See these people lately?



I hated working in the financial industry. There was a time that I simply dreaded waking in the morning until it finally made me sick. One day I realized that I had to change. Change my attitude, to gratitude. That changed everything.

"I'm Huge on the Internet"

It is almost one in the afternoon and I have yet to turn on my computer. Usually the computer is on and I would have already checked all my email accounts, social networks and probably have tweeted a half dozen times by now. Not today. I’m attempting an impromptu digital detox of my own.

Can't Find A Vedder Man!

When I woke up yesterday morning I had one plan amongst all my errands for the day, to meet Pearl Jam. I managed to see their day schedule when they performed in Toronto. So around 3:30 they should arrive for sound check.